Page 81 of Faerie Gift

I raised my gaze to meet his and held it although it burned something in my insides.

“Professor Hoarfrost, I deserve a place in Faerie because I’ve earned it. I work hard, I do what needs to be done, and I care about my friends. I would do anything for the people I love, which is an asset to any people or place. I’ve fought tooth and nail, literally, to stay at this school and no one wants it more than I do. I’m prepared toalwaysdo what is necessary to protect my family. And my family is in Faerie.”

I didn’t tell him who, not when my mind went inexplicably to Mike. To Melia. They would be there, and I’d made an oath to stick by their side. I didn’t tell Hoarfrost about Kendrick Grimaldi, lest he put two and two together or think I was trying to buy his sympathy. I didn’t want his pity. I didn’t want anything from him beyond a passing grade, not even his respect.

“I’m a fast learner. I’m good at magic. I have a power I can use as an asset.”

Did he want me to go on?

“I deserve my place in Faerie because of who I am,” I finished. “Because I’m enough.”

Falling silent, I watched him make a final note on his paper. He didn’t say anything, merely flicking a finger at me, pointing toward the door. My cue to leave. He didn’t look impressed with me. At all.

I walked out of the room in a daze, my thoughts fractured in a million pieces and all of them wondering if I’d done well enough to pass. I wouldn’t put it past him to take points away for the smallest wrong word in any of my answers.

If I failed…if Hoarfrost didn’t give me a passing grade for the oral exam, then I’d be out.

28

Walking out of the room with Hoarfrost watching, I felt like I’d stepped into a different world. Sweat trickled down my neck and spine and my heart beat so hard I felt it bruising my insides.

I waited with the rest of the first-year students in the auditorium to see whether or not we’d made it through to the final round of testing. No sense in a practical exam for everyone if you didn’t pass the oral part.

Fifty of us gathered between the rows of seats, too anxious to sit, biting our nails, staring at the stage and waiting for the results to pop up.

“It’s going to be fine,” Mike soothed, running a hand between my shoulder blades. Shivers rose where he touched me although I wasn’t sure if it was exhilaration from his attention or dread for what I’d see in the results.

“You didn’t have to sit through an agonizing hour with someone who hates you,” I answered. Apparently only an hour had passed during my exam with Hoarfrost instead of an eternity. Go figure.

“Hoarfrost can’t fail you because of personal feelings.” This was Melia trying to be helpful. “It’s against the academy’s code.”

“Wanna bet?” I’d told the two of them about the threats Hoarfrost made in the beginning of the semester. They knew. How could they blithely—

Someone gasped and my gaze snapped back to the stage, watching as the paper materialized. Then the weight of fifty students plus their friends and mentors crushed me forward.

I searched for my name amongst the rest of them, going down the list alphabetically. What I could see through the shoulders and necks of everyone else, anyway.

Abershire.

Adenine.

Auros.

Alderidge.

Then I stopped dead, and would have fallen over if Mike hadn’t been standing behind to catch me.

Top marks. My final grade for the first two exams came to 90%.

Hoarfrosthad given me top marks.

What in the—

Melia shook me into a standing position. “What did I tell you?” she crowed. “I knew you would make it through! You were so worried. For nothing.”

But I couldn’t hear her, not properly. Not with my pulse exploding in my ears and drowning out the rest of the cheers and screams.

Top marks?

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